Pledge to stop using disposable produce bags at the grocery store

posted on causes.com by Jessica Dahl on April 9, 2012

I pledge to stop using the disposable produce bags at the grocery store!

The U.S. alone uses over 100 billion plastic bags and produces 31 million tons of plastic waste per year. Plastic bags are a huge problem to dispose of because each one takes up to a thousand years to degrade. Where are these billions of bags going in the meantime? 

 

Each square mile of the ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic, much of it drifting to the ocean floor where it will never degrade, or entangling sea animals who mistake it for food and often die trying to eat or escape from the debris.

Many people have adopted reusable grocery bags, but you can take the extra step of pledging to stop using smaller plastic bags for your produce and bulk goods.

- Buy small reusable bags (http://www.bagitmovie.com/shop.html or http://www.chicobag.com/ or http://www.reuseit.com/ have good options).

- Get crafty and try making your own bags out of old t-shirts, old cloth napkins or netting.

- Or, let your broccoli and kale and lemons and apples all hang out together in your reusable bag and in the crisper drawer. Your veggies and fruit won’t mind -- you’ll wash them before eating anyway.

By doing so, you’ll take a small action that has the big cumulative effect of reducing waste and protecting the environment.

Bags ban: good idea — on paper

posted July 17th in the Signal.com

Los Angeles County’s ordinance on the ban of plastic shopping bags in unincorporated county stores went into effect July 1. Despite the huffing and puffing of many who claim it’s an infringement on consumers’ right to choose, it’s ultimately a good move, but not without some glaring flaws.

Yes, it’s odd that we’re on the side of an ordinance that also passed in San Francisco, but it’s for our own good.

How many times have you seen plastic shopping bags wafting down the streets when the Santa Ana winds come blowing through? How many thousands of discarded bags line the wash and the Santa Clara River? How many thousands, if not millions of dollars are spent clearing them from all over the county?

An L.A. County study estimates the average household in the county uses roughly 1,600 plastic bags each year. That’s a lot — especially when you consider that there are about 3.2 million households in the county. That comes out to about 5.1 billion plastic bags used each year.

And far too many of those end up on the streets, sidewalks, landfills and the ocean. The last part is evidenced by what’s called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of trash floating north of Hawaii that’s roughly twice the size of Texas.

But paper bags are biodegradable, stores are required to use fully recyclable bags and 40 percent of each bag has to be made from recycled material.

Because plastic bags have been cheap to produce, free for consumers and available essentially everywhere for decades, we’ve all taken them for granted when we go shopping. So, for those who shop in unincorporated county areas — where the ban has taken place — it’s a bit jarring and frustrating. But it’s supposed to be.

There is some logic behind this, however ham-handed the execution may be.

Beyond the frustration of no longer being able to get plastic bags, shoppers are fuming at the fact that the once-free paper bags are now 10 cents apiece — as is mandated by the county ordinance.

The idea is to dissuade consumers from exclusively using paper bags so we aren’t instead using billions of those each year.

The 10-cent collection goes to the stores, not the county, as some believe. And its purpose is to cover the cost of the paper bags and to fund campaigns that encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bags to the stores.

This is where we stop liking the ordinance.

Instead of using a proverbial carrot like Target’s model, in which customers who bring in their own bags get a five-cent discount per shopper bag used, those who are affected by the ban are given a heavy dose of stick — 10 cents at a time.

Ten cents per bag isn’t likely to break the bank for anyone, but it’s just pricey enough to be really annoying, especially after bags have been free for so many years. But that’s the point; the county wants shoppers to get frustrated and motivated enough to bring their own bags.

Reusable bags are a good thing; they save money and reduce pollution and litter. But it’s much more shopper-friendly to not penalize shoppers by charging them for the paper bags, and instead incentivize the use of reusable bags by offering discounts.

L.A. County is hoping its progressive and proactive stance on litter will serve as a template for the rest of the state and the country, but it’s already causing confusion and frustration in its limited execution.

Local shoppers who live just outside the city borders aren’t embracing the new change, and it has led many of them to drive down the road a bit and go to stores in the city of Santa Clarita — thus costing county merchants business.

It would be better if the ordinance were everywhere  or nowhere in the county, instead of targeting select areas and largely nullifying the environmental impacts of the change. This should be a state resolution to ensure sweeping change, and not just target a select few parts of California.

Plastic Bag Companies Now Suing Entrepreneurs: The ChicoBag Case

by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 04.12.11 on Treehugger.com

Andrew Keller, founder of ChicoBag, on board at the Sea Dragon with 5 Gyres. Photo credit: Paula Alvarado

As awareness about plastic pollution around the world continues to grow, the plastic industry has been busy trying to save its business. This is true for bottled water manufacturers, but especially true for plastic bag companies, which haven't taken the anti single-use plastic movement easily and have been taking all kinds of actions to prevent people from stopping to use their products.

On the PR side, they've launched campaigns like Save The Plastic Bag, which are flooding websites and media with sometimes misleading information: namely, that reusable bags may contain germs that could get your family sick if you don't wash them (duh: every piece of cloth can contain germs if you don't wash it, including tea towels, garments, cleaning cloths, etc.).

On the legal side, they've sued cities that have banned plastic bags like Oakland, CA, Fairfield, CA, and San Jose, CA, arguing that the decisions were taken without proper environmental impact studies and asking for bans to be taken down.

Unsatisfied with these practices, this business group seems to be taking the next step: filing suits against entrepreneurs that are standing up against single-use plastics. Such is the case of a recent lawsuit that three major plastic bag producers have filed against ChicoBag Company, a pioneering company in the reusable bag movement.

The names in question are Hilex Poly Company, Superbag Operating and Advance Polybag, who are claiming that ChicoBag has infringed in 'False and Misleading Advertisement', 'Violation Of The Latham Act', and 'Violation of The Unfair Trade Practices Act' for some information included on its website.

The facts in dispute include a quote supposedly taken from the EPA website claiming that "Reusable bags need only to be used eleven times to have a lower environmental impact than using eleven disposable bags", some clerical errors due to website formatting (references pointed to the wrong facts), and some statements related to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Now of course every business owner has the right to ask for explanations when someone is talking trash about one's work or product, and it might be true that a lot of misinformation about plastics is wrongly portrayed and deserves some rectification. But ChicoBag claims that it corrected the information that was wrong in its website within 72 hours of receiving notification of it. Nevertheless, the plastic companies continued with the suit.

It seems at the very least curious that companies the size of these are taking it against a medium-sized business like ChicoBag, a business run by an entrepreneur that has been prominently active and vocal, standing up against wasteful single-use plastics.

The plastic bag monster, also making an appearance on the trip. Photo credit: Paula Alvarado

ChicoBag's founder, Andrew Keller, has been running his business like a non-profit, doing all sorts of actions to raise awareness about the over-use of plastic bags. In the summer of 2010, he toured the US in a 'plastic bag monster' suit raising awareness against the abuse of these and receiving a fair amount of attention in the media. Previously, he had testified before the State of California in support the ban of plastic bags and was a speaker at the TEDx Great Pacific Garbage Patch event.

Again: plastic companies have the right to defend their product all they want, and it's up to consumers to decide what they want to do. But using their greater economic resources to shut the mouth of an environmentally conscious entrepreneur seems more like a case of bullying than of defending fair commerce practices.

The entrepreneur during one of his watches on the boat. Photo credit: Paula Alvarado

Keller (above) is now participating in the South Pacific 5 Gyres expedition that TreeHugger was invited to join, where he's trying to find out more about plastic marine pollution first-hand.

"I've always tried to convey the most accurate information about single use plastics but it's hard to know what facts or articles are the most up to date and accurate. To compound the issue, the plastics industry has its own industry-funded facts and information which makes the topic extremely confusing to sort through. So I wanted to come here and see for myself first-hand, what's the impact of plastics on our ocean," he said about his reasons to join the voyage.

Asked about the lawsuit, he preferred not to make statements until the process continues. However, we found that environmental organizations against plastic pollution -- including 5 Gyres -- are aware of the legal action and are planning to offer support. We'll keep you posted about how this issue unfolds.

UPDATE: ChicoBag has put up a website to inform people about the lawsuit, you can check it out at www.SuedByPlastic.com.

More Stories on this Topic:

Small Plastic Bag Lawsuit Could Have a Huge Impact on Green Business

Plastic Bag Industry Says ChicoBag is Talking Trash

Plastic Bag Manufacturers SLAPP ChicoBag for “Talking Trash” (official court documents posted)